[powerpress]
How to Test for Autoimmune Disease
How to test for autoimmune disease is really a multiple part process - and the results may leave you wondering if you have one at all. Maybe even wondering why you waited so long. Most people take an average of 5 years to get to a diagnosis and then begin treatment. 5 years. Do you know what could have been un-done in those years? How far could you have come on your healing path while you were waiting for this label?
Today we are covering exactly how to test yourself for autoimmune disease and other chronic illnesses without diagnosing yourself or even performing anything more than a few at-home tests. I have also included a quiz to help you on this path. Over the next 2 weeks, we will be talking about interpreting some common labs and why labs may not even be needed and some of my favorite trackers to assess where you are in your healing journey.
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How to Test for Autoimmune Disease
Rough Transcript (listening is best)
Testing for Autoimmune Disease...
How to test for autoimmune disease is really a multiple part process - and the results may leave you wondering if you have one at all. Maybe even wondering why you waited so long. Most people take an average of 5 years to get to a diagnosis and then begin treatment. 5 years. Do you know what could have been un-done in those years? How far could you have come on your healing path while you were waiting for this label?
Today we are covering exactly how to test yourself for autoimmune disease and other chronic illnesses without diagnosing yourself or even performing anything more than a few at home tests. I have also included a quiz to help you on this path. Over the next 2 weeks, we will be talking about interpreting some common labs and why labs may not even be needed and some of my favorite trackers to assess where you are in your healing journey.
Intro
Welcome if this is your first time listening - I’m Audrey Christie - I’m a functional and integrative nurse nutritionist and energy medicine practitioner. I help women start your very own Autoimmune Revolution so you can stop chasing symptoms and learn how to heal your body from autoimmune disease.
Does autoimmune diagnosis matter?
As I mentioned most people who are suffering from a symptom or collection of symptoms that just won’t go away, spend an average of 5 years to get to a diagnosis. Five whole years. Five years of suffering and stressing and making whatever was there label-less WORSE. Even when you get the label what does that change?
It changes nothing. You still have the same option of conventional medicine to mask the symptoms or starting your own revolution in your health and wellness to heal your body.
What could you have healed while you were stuck waiting?
Let me share a story with you...
I get lots of stories in my practice, or maybe they could be considered complaints? Or even cries for help? A few stand out here:
Holly, came to me because she had some lab results that she didn’t understand and she had already been diagnosed with Hashimoto's - but she is still having symptoms and inflammation after years of treatment. She got new labs and was waiting for months to see her doctor.
Cally said this in her intro interview, “18 months of tests and waiting and passed to different departments and I should finally have my MRI results tomorrow to tell me if it’s RA or if it’s back to more tests. New symptoms in the last month of my hair falling out and my fatigue and brain fog is worse than it’s ever been, adding to my constant joint pain. I’m so sick of being in pain all the time and when the pain is manageable I’m too blood exhausted to do anything. Really had enough of feeling like this.
Megan said, “Well, turns out I don’t have an autoimmune disease after all according to my doctor. The first set of labs had a positive ANA. The second set had a negative ANA but the RNP level was high. He can’t diagnose me at this time with anything - all other markers were negative. Something is not right. Constant fatigue, muscle aches, headaches, brain fog, constant itching where I feel like I’m crawling out of my skin. I just don’t get it."
Have you suffered the same way before diagnosis?
Here’s the thing - notice they are all waiting in pain and stress and anguish to get results once they have that diagnosis. Guess what? You don’t need a diagnosis to find out if you have an autoimmune disease. It’s likely that all of these women do, but they don’t need to label or some magic test to tell you how to heal your body.
And once you do finally get the label if that is your path, then what? Then you are now subject to the rhetoric that conventional medicine tends to push, that autoimmune disease isn’t improvable or reversible, and that at best you will need long-term medication. Which, sometimes is the case, but not very often.
In the majority of cases, with your commitment to getting better, to make real progressive lifestyle changes, autoimmune disease, can be significantly reduced, and even reversed.
Conventional medicine generally reaches for chronic immunosuppression drugs, like prednisone (or other low-dose chemotherapeutic drugs) When you take immunosuppressive drugs, you are grinding the immune system to a halt. People, unfortunately, die from simple things like strep and flu viruses or underlying infectious issues when they are prescribed prednisone long term for chronic illness.
Now I'm not saying mainstream medicine is wrong - or not needed ever, but it is important to note that it's not designed for chronic illness management.
Autoimmune disease is so often reversible, even diabetes.
That is one of the thousands of reasons why the functional and integrative approach works so well, and especially now combined with the Autoimmune Revolution method I have developed, because it not only looks at the whole picture, holistically, body, mind, and spirit...it also breaks it down in a way that you know how to tell if you have an autoimmune disease and if it even matters. But more importantly, you become the healer in your home, in your human suit, and know exactly how to heal your body yourself.
How to test for autoimmune disease...
There are a number of things I want you to look at to see what is going on in your human suit...and here are the exercises to do so.
Do I have an autoimmune disease quiz?
The first thing I want you to do - is to take this quiz and find out - what are your symptoms? What do they mean? Physically? Energetically?
Simple Stomach Acid Test
Then I want you to do the Simple at Home Stomach Acid test. Almost all autoimmune conditions have a root in digestion and the starting point of that is your stomach acid. It is actually with chewing but this is easier to test.
Stomach acid plays a role in much of the function and physiology (the what and the how) of nutrients getting into our bodies or nutrients triggering our immune system to go haywire, especially if fatigue is on your list. It also has a really important role in the protection of our body, serving as a primary defense system against parasites and foodborne bacteria.
Here is a simple test you can do at home - to determine if you need to increase or improve your stomach acid.
Perform this test on an empty stomach (first thing in the morning is best).
Supplies Needed
1 tsp Baking Soda
8-10 oz of water
Instructions
Mix 1 tsp of Baking Soda into the 8-10 oz of water. Stir until dissolved.
On an empty stomach, drink the mixture.
Spend a few moments really thinking about what you are going to eat for breakfast, visualizing it, thinking of how it tastes, and how delicious it is. (This activates the Cephalic Reflex).
Wait 10-15 minutes.
If you have stomach acid present - if you are functioning properly - you will start to burp. If you aren’t burping - there is work to be done.
Please note - just because you burp doesn’t mean there isn’t work to be done, it just means that your stomach acid MAY be okay. This is what we call a subjective test, meaning its not precise. But it CAN point out deficiencies for some people, especially with significantly low stomach acid.
Tune in Journal
Take a minute and write down each of your symptoms on a separate page. You can use a little journal for this - I personally am a sucker for a pretty journal - or just notebook paper. You could even do this digitally if you must but I find there is special magic and a little evidence too that pen to paper works better.
Under each symptom-free write or brain dump ANYTHING that comes up, you may start with everything you know about the symptom when it started, what it is, when it occurs, and then as you free-write you will notice more and more coming out on to the paper.
When you are done, you get to play the role of zygologist and draw lines or conclusions as to what might be related.
This is the start of how you are going to test for autoimmune disease, more importantly how you are going to determine where you need healing. What have you got to lose? What if you spent the months you are waiting for your specialist appointment to do this work?
If you haven’t already, take the Do I have an autoimmune disease quiz? Once you get those results you will also get a few emails with the Autoimmune Revolution kickstart that I have created for you its completely free and has 5 steps you can take today to kick start your autoimmune revolution, even if you haven't got an official diagnosis. I encourage you to download it whether you decide to take the quiz or not.
To wrap this up...
To wrap this up - if you haven’t gotten it by now - don’t need an autoimmune diagnosis to heal your body. How to test for autoimmune disease is as simple as defining your root causes to the collection of symptoms you are experiencing. And the best part is you can work on your own to figure it out while you are waiting on a conventional medicine answer if you like. That way you can still have both options open.
Thank you so much for tuning in, if you have a second it would mean the world to me if you could leave a rating or review! That helps me help more people start an autoimmune revolution of their own. I’d be oh so grateful.
I hope you have the most magical and restful day friends, and I challenge you to leave your world, however you can, a little better than how you found it when you got up this morning.
Be well.